As President Barack Obama continues the process of nominating officials to fill agency positions in his administration, some senators have stalled the nominations over policy differences. The senators have targeted nominees to regulatory agencies that have responsibility for a range of environmental policies.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) has placed a hold on the nomination of Gina McCarthy as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation. (A hold is an informal action intended to keep a measure or nomination from reaching the floor for a vote.) The air and radiation office would have some responsibility for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, if Congress does not pass legislation addressing climate change. McCarthy was nominated March 16; she is a former commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

According to an April 30 press release, Barrasso is concerned about EPA's potential to use the act to regulate and the impacts of the regulations on businesses and consumers. “The nominee has failed to address serious concerns regarding the implementation of the Clean Air Act with regards EPA’s recent endangerment finding,” Barrasso said. The EPA issued an endangerment finding that will require the agency to act on climate issues if Congress does not supplant that responsibility with new legislation. The press release also indicates that Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, supported Barrasso's hold.

Department of Interior nominees are also targets of Senate holds. Sens. Robert F. Bennett (R-UT) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have placed holds on David Hayes, Obama's choice for deputy secretary at Interior. Bennett has delayed Hayes's nomination pending a departmental review of 77 oil and gas leases that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar cancelled Feb. 4. Salazar agreed to review the decision at Bennett's request and asked Hayes to lead the review team. Hayes indicated in a letter to Bennett that he thought the reviews would be completed May 1 and he and his staff would have a final report for Salazar by May 29.

Murkowski added her name to the hold on Hayes because of her objection to the administration's decision to overturn President George W. Bush's midnight regulation changing the way the Endangered Species Act is implemented. The rule allowed federal land-use managers to approve projects like infrastructure creation or minerals extraction without consulting federal habitat managers and biological health experts responsible for species protection. Consultation was required under the previous version of the rule.

According to an April 30 press release, Murkowski disagreed with "Interior’s decision to unilaterally overturn an existing rule" without going through the normal rulemaking process. The release also noted her disappointment in Obama's decisions on other environmental and energy-related matters, but none of these objections are specifically related to Hayes.

However, under Section 429 of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, Congress authorized the secretaries of Interior and Commerce to withdraw or reissue the rule "without regard to any provision of law that establishes a requirement for such withdrawal." In addition, Obama issued a memo to the two agencies urging them to review and determine the appropriate approach to revising the rule.

Bennett also has a hold on Interior's solicitor nominee, Hilary Tompkins, over concern that Tompkins avoided clearly answering questions about the department's position on the Utah Wilderness Settlement Agreement. According to an April 30 Salt Lake Tribune article, the 2003 settlement agreement freezes the state's designated wilderness study areas at 3.2 million acres, thus restricting Interior's ability to designate additional areas of Utah as wilderness. Bennett is seeking assurances from Salazar and Tompkins that the settlement will remain in place because removing the freeze could hurt Utah's energy industry, the article noted.

The Senate was able to confirm Tom Strickland as Interior's Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks April 30. Strickland, like Salazar, is from Colorado and will retain his position as Salazar's chief of staff while serving as assistant secretary.

Obama named two people to another critical regulatory agency May 5. In a press release, Obama announced that he will nominate as commissioners to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Inez Moore Tenenbaum and Robert S. Adler. Tenenbaum will be nominated to chair CPSC and Adler to one of two new commissioner positions. Tenenbaum is a former superintendent of education in South Carolina and an advocate for families and children. Adler is a law professor in North Carolina, a former advisor to CPSC staff, and has consumer protection experience, according to the press release. In addition, the statement indicated Obama's intent to expand the commission from three to five members, so one position remains to be filled.

Another Obama nominee, Cass Sunstein, will sit for his Senate confirmation hearing on May 12. Sunstein has been nominated to run the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an office that has been deeply involved in regulatory review and other regulatory process issues since the Reagan administration.